Mexico's Penoles 4th-qtr profit plunges on tax, exchange rate costs

(Adds reasons for loss, share price, breakdown of results)

MEXICO CITY, March 4 (Reuters) - Mexican miner Penoles on Wednesday reported a steep loss in the fourth quarter of 2014, hurt by lower metals prices, a one-off tax settlement and exchange rate costs.

The miner and metals processor, which runs the world's largest primary silver producer, Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news) , reported a loss of 1.59 billion pesos ($107.7 million) in the quarter compared to a profit of 152.4 million pesos in the same period a year earlier.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the company were down 3.75 percent at 291.97 pesos in morning trading.

Penoles reported revenue of 15.82 billion pesos, up 5.86 percent from 14.94 billion pesos in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company said it paid 1.1 billion pesos to the Mexican tax authority to settle a dispute going back to 2012.

The company also said silver prices were down 20.7 percent compared with the year-earlier quarter, while gold prices were down 5.7 percent. ($1 = 14.7475 pesos at end December) (Reporting by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by James Dalgleish)